320 General Notes I July 



Dec. 31, 1915. Saw seven in plumage of the female, the river was 

 skimmed over with ice, they were in an open space. 



Jan. 4, 1916. I saw the seven again today, also saw a new one, a drake, 

 in full plumage. 



Jan. 13, 1916. Saw four, one drake, three in female plumage; another 

 full plum aged drake joined them in the p.m. 



Jan. 22, 1916. I saw thirteen, four drakes in full plumage, the others 

 in the female plumage. 



Jan. 30, 1916. I saw eleven, four of which were drakes in full plumage. 

 They were widely separated. 



Feb. 6, 1916. Saw twenty at 8 o'clock a. m., five of them drakes, later 

 there were nine drakes. 



Feb. 7, 1916. Saw them all again this morning. 

 'Feb. 10, 1916. River closed with ice, birds all gone. 



I have noticed a number of times this winter a feature in the courtship 

 of the drakes, while resting on the water. They would send out a stream 

 of water with their feet, or foot, between three and four feet directly behind 

 them. I would also mention that they are astonishingly swift swim- 

 mers under water, and that coming up under the ice apparently caused 

 them little inconvenience. — George H. Mackay, Nantucket, Mass. 



The European Widgeon in Central New York.^ On April 11, 1915, 

 Prof. A. A. Allen and I were in the Montezuma marshes at the outlet of 

 Lake Cayuga, attempting to photograph the wild fowl. Leaving Prof. 

 AUen in the blind I wandered over the marsh to " Black Lake " where a 

 handsome drake of this species was discovered in a flock of Baldpate. An 

 hour or so later we both returned, and the European Widgeon was observed 

 at fairly close range through prism glasses for a quarter of an hour, every 

 detail of plumage being satisfactorily made out. The species has not 

 been recorded from the Cayuga Lake Basin in many years, and through 

 Prof. Allen's courtesy I am able to record our observation. — Ludlow 

 Griscom, Ithaca, N. Y. 



Limicolse at Porto Rico in July. — While studying the fishes of Porto 

 Rico in behalf of the N. Y. Academy of Sciences and Insular Government; 

 Guanica Lake, July 27, 1914: the writer observed a Least Tern {Sterna 

 antillarum), about a dozen Lesser Yellowlegs (Totamis flavipes), as many 

 Least Sandpipers {Pisobia minutilla), a couple of Semipalmated Sandpipers 

 {Ereunetes pusillus), and a single Greater Y-ellowlegs (Totanus vielano- 

 le.ucus). The Tern is a more recent occurrence than noted by Wetmore, 

 Birds of Porto Rico, 1916 (U. S. Dept. Ag., Bull. No. 326), and the date for 

 the Shore Birds is earlier than any he gives for them on their southward 

 migration, earlier than, at first thought, one would expect them to reach ■ 

 the West Indies. But many early south-bound Limicolse probably move » 

 very rapidly, reaching localities in widely separated latitudes on approxi- 

 mately the same dates. This was first called to the writer's attention by 



